Portrush, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Roe Island

Roe Island is a small rocky island off Portrush on the north coast of Northern Ireland and one of the most popular dive sites in the region. The walls and gullies surrounding the island drop from the surface to 25 metres on a clean rock and sand bottom, with stepped ledges and small caverns offering dramatic underwater topography. The site is exposed to strong tidal currents that drive nutrient-rich water through the area, supporting dense filter-feeder communities: plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, jewel anemones in patches, sponges, hydroids and pink coralline algae carpet the structure, with kelp forests of Laminaria hyperborea on the upper margins. Resident species include ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pollack, bib, conger eels, lobsters, edible crabs and spider crabs, with the occasional Atlantic grey seal. Visibility ranges from 4 to 10 metres in summer and water temperatures vary between 9 and 15 degrees Celsius. Currents are strong and dives are timed around slack water from Portrush charter boats. The site is suitable for advanced divers comfortable in cold water with drysuits.